Themes: Corporate Restructuring
Period : 1996 - 2003
Organization : Vivendi Universal
Pub Date : 2003
Countries : France
Industry : Media & Entertainment
TABLE II
VIVENDI MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS BUSINESSES
-- The Music business was run by the Universal Music
Group, which developed, acquired, manufactured, marketed and distributed,
recorded music through its wholly-owned operations or its licensees in 63
countries. The music business also included one of the world's largest music
publishing companies that involved the acquisition of the rights to and the
licensing of musical compositions. |
Source: adapted from www.tcg.org.
The company also sold some of the subsidiaries that Messier thought were of no use to the existing business. The Canal Digital Satellite operation was sold to a Norwegian telecommunication company, Telenor, for $ 256 million. A 9.9% stake in Havas Advertising was sold for € 453 million. |
|
Commenting on this, Guy Deslondes, Standard & Poor's (S&P) VU analyst, Paris, said, "At this level of rating (triple B with a stable outlook) their ability to increase debt is basically exhausted. A long-term debt downgrade would mean VU's commercial paper rating would drop to A3, making it almost impossible for the company to raise short-term financing without turning to the banks."8
8] Credit ratings of debt issued by companies aims to certify the serviceability of the debt. Agencies like S&P and Moody's take into account a host of features to rate the debt of companies on a comparative scale. Debts are graded on a scale of AAA to CCC (AAA being the highest 'quality' debt and CCC the worst), with A1, A2, A3 etc. (Moody's) and AA+, B- etc. (S&P) falling in between.